Immigration security

After refusing a handshake, a Muslim couple was denied Swiss citizenship

When a Muslim couple sat down for a meeting with a municipal commission in the Swiss city of Lausanne, their interviewers found that they “showed great difficulty in answering questions asked by people of the opposite sex,” the city’s mayor said.

So they were both denied Swiss citizenship.

Mayor Grégoire Junod told Agence France-Presse on Friday that the man and woman declined to shake hands with people of the opposite sex and that their behavior during the interview signaled to the three-person commission interviewing them that they had not adequately integrated into Switzerland.

Despite laws that ensure freedom of religion, “religious practice does not fall outside the law,” Junod told AFP.

Handshaking has ignited a debate over the role of religion in Switzerland before, as some Muslims, with the exception of certain relatives, do not physically touch members of the opposite sex.